Topic: Carolyn's Training Log (TraceuseDS)

[TraceuseDS]

December 16, 2009:
Work: 5 hours. Temp: ~28.

PK:

• Warmup: Dynamic stretching (mostly).
• Work on jumping form. I was worn out, but I got to help coach someone else on jumping technique, so that was fun.
• Couple random vaults.
• Bouncing around and being silly on a trampoline.
• Some other stuff I really don't remember at this point, b/c I forgot to write it down... There wasn't as much activity as usual, b/c I was feeling icky.
• Metcon: 5x(10 pushups and 10...air squats, if I remember correctly?). Time: 7:17 when I finally found the dratted stopwatch that was over on the other side of the gym.

December 17 and 18, 2009:
Work: 4.5-5.0 hours. Temp: 25-35; snow storm at the end of the day on Friday. Definitely sick; not terrible, but certainly had a negative impact on my stamina.


December 19 and 20, 2009:
REST DAYS!!!


December 21, 2009:
Work: 4.5 hours. Temp: ~33. Nice! Feeling A LOT better, although I still have a bit of a cough that shows up primarily at night.

[TraceuseDS]

December 22, 2009:
Work: 5+ hours. Temp: 31. Snow storm. Think I bruised my left heel at some point, over near where the Achilles tendon attaches; this kept giving me problems for the rest of the week.


December 23, 2009:
Work: 5+ hours. Temp: 33. Rain, snow, sleet, hail...you name the type of precipitation, and we had it!

Open gym:

• Warmup: Minimal. Some jumping and balancing.
• Worked a lot on my fear of jumping across gaps. There are several balance beams parallel to one another at about hip height, around 5 feet apart from one another, and they've been taunting me for weeks now. I can jump the distance on the ground with no problem, but somehow it's much harder at that height. After much deliberation and several pep talks (from myself and others) I managed to jump across from one balance beam to the next. Twice! Didn't stick the landing either time, but that's progress (my second landing in particular was painful and a mess).
• Random dancing around to music on a trampoline...erm...heh.
• Handstand practice.
• Trying to figure out how to rotate backwards around one of the parallel bars.
• Couple of fairly good cartwheels. Go me! I hadn't realized that I'd gotten better at that (they're still not pretty, but they're much improved).
• Metcon: 3x (10 lunges per leg + 100 m QM)
  Time was under 10 minutes. I need to pace myself better: I was the first one to finish the first round, but faded in the second and particularly third rounds. Quads were *BURNING* from the work on the truck all day in combination with this!!!

December 24, 2009:
Work: 5+ hours. Temp: 34. Snowing. On the plus side, my knees were doing great.


December 25-28, 2009:
Rest. Finally seem to have stopped coughing. Mostly. Definitely needed a couple of extra days here.

Need to get back to the gym soon; I'm dealing with some personal stuff and I know that working out will help me feel a bit less crappy, but I'm sorely lacking in motivation at the moment.

[TraceuseDS]

December 29, 2009:
Spent about 2 hours with some awesome people carrying boxes that weighed between 14.5 and 15 kg...so I guess that's around 31-33#.


December 30, 2009:
1 hour Pilates class. Still feeling crappy, so this was a lot harder than it should've been. Managed to drag my sister (who is home from school) along. No parkour because the gymnastics gym was closed for the week.


December 31, 2009 - January 3, 2010:
Rest days...mostly. And not much sleep.


January 4, 2010:
Finally got my act together and made it into the gym. Took things easy because it was my first day back.

• Warmup: 2x (10 squats, 10 pushups [all standard], 10 situps, and 10 pullups [100# assist, no broken sets])
• Push Press:
  
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 3x5, 55#
• Deadlift:
  
  • 1x5, 55#
  • 1x5, 95#
  • 3x5, 135# First set was 2+3 because I lost control of the bar on the way down. Sets 2 and 3 were done with mixed grip. Little too much back rounding here on the way up from the floor.

January 5, 2010:
Rest day.


January 6, 2010:
Morning: 1 hour Pilates class. Much better this week. Still functioning primarily as rehab for all my weird joint issues.

Evening: Gymnastics gym.

• Warmup: Jogging around the perimeter of the gym until breathless (didn't take long for me!). Joint rotations.
• Freeform vaulting practice: Felt good just to be doing this again, although I feel like I may have lost some ground on my pseudo-kong. Just focused on getting over the block - which was a bit different than usual, b/c some of our normal ones have disappeared temporarily. My usual one was still there, but the other one I was working on was one that's much wider (and slightly higher) than any I've used before.
• Balance work: Someone set up  couple of little rails (about 4-5 ft long) at different heights. The challenge was to walk across the first one, step up onto the second, then walk to the end of that one and come back. I made it across both ways, but I'm still having issues turning at the end w/o stepping off.
• Precision practice: The low balance beams on the floor, and one about a foot off the ground. Each was 3-4 feet away from the next. Didn't get a chance to try the big ones again, because some other people were doing drills over there.
• Handstand practice: Against a wall. Still tapping my foot each time I go up, but once I stop touching the wall I can generally hold for a second or two; maybe I'd progress faster if I started trying these away from the wall? At any rate I need to work more on it, and more often, too.
• Metcon: 21-15-9; do the full number of burpees, pushups, and situps for the set, QM across the gym, then do the next set. Time: 8:22.

[TraceuseDS]

January 7 and 8, 2010:
Rest.


January 9, 2010:
Busy day but I needed to do something, so I improvised a metcon with stuff I had at home:

• Warmup: 5 minutes jumping rope (I still fail at the coordination necessary for this - couldn't manage to do more than 16 in a row, and that was rare).
• Metcon: 21-15-9 Air squats, jumping pullups, and thrusters with 10# dumbbells. Time: 8:23. As I started the first set of jumping pullups, I realized that the thrusters use some of the same muscles as the squats, which wasn't what I was going for...oh well. A somewhat obvious observation: It's a lot harder to hustle when you're doing a metcon by yourself.

[TraceuseDS]

January 10, 2010:
Rest day.


January 11, 2010:
Gym. Forgot to bring my water bottle!

• Warmup: 2x (10 air squats, 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 assisted pullups [100# assist]).
• Press:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 3x5, 50#
• Squats:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 1x5, 65#
  • 1x5, 95#
  • 3x5, 135# Some depth issues at this weight, but overall it felt pretty good.

[TraceuseDS]

January 12, 2010:
2.5 hour orchestra rehearsal.


January 13, 2010:
Morning: Pilates. 1 hour.

Evening:

• Warmup: Joint rotations, dynamic stretching. Some air squats.
• Roll drills.
• Precision practice. Mostly on the floor, balance beams ~5 feet apart. Stood on the high balance beams, which are no farther apart, and just stared at the next one, willing myself to jump. Finally did, but failed to commit, so they didn't turn out well.
• QM along balance beams, backwards and forwards.
• A little handstand practice.
• Metcon: 10 minutes of the following, repeated as many times as possible: 5 burpees, 10 situps, 15 jumping jacks, QM across the gym. I lost count in there somewhere, but I think I was partway through the burpees in my 7th round when time was called.

January 14, 2010 through now:
Rest...and then massive amounts of cleaning. And then rest again.

[TraceuseDS]

January 18, 2010:
Morning:

• Warmup: 7 minutes on a bike. 2x(10 air squats, 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 pullups [100# assist]). Managed to do these without breaking any sets. It may be time to decrease the amount of assistance on the pullups.
• Push Press:
  
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 3x5, 60#
• Deadlift:
  
  • 1x5, 60#
  • 1x5, 95#
  • 1x4 (+fail), 140# This was grip failure; the weight felt good (heavy, but good).
  • 2x5, 140# Used mixed grip, did much better. I've been trying to do the first work set with standard grip and the second and third mixed, but I may have to start doing all three mixed from the beginning. I also think I like doing the warmup sets this way rather than the way I've been doing them. I'll try something similar next time and see what happens.

Evening:
Gymnastics gym!

• Warmup: 3x(10 air squats, 10 pushups [some on knees], 10 situps, 10 jumping jacks)
• Roll drills: 3 steps + roll; 2 steps, jump, roll...the jumping felt a bit awkward. Did a few cycles just jumping.
• Speed vaults: Wasn't getting a lot of height on these, but I did make it over. Used my normal, hip-height foam block.
• Safety vaults: Got demoted to these b/c the speed vaults were sloppy. ::sigh:: The safety vaults honestly felt more awkward than the speed vaults, but they did improve with time. Things to focus on: (1) wait until you're airborne before planting hand (i.e., don't reach out in front before feet leave the floor); (2) keep body facing forward the whole time (before, during, and after the vault); (3) kick really high. I threw a couple speed vaults in there when the safety vaults started feeling really good. Some were smooth; some weren't. One in particular was excellent - I was at least a foot above the block as I traveled through the air - but the next few were terrible. The inconsistency drives me crazy!!
• Lazy vaults: Still awful when I'm going over something on my left side. Less awful on my right. Apparently wider obstacles are tricky.
• Kong progression: Started off by planting both hands and landing on top of the block. This felt good (except the time I landed too close to the far edge and almost knocked the block over - oops!). Transitioned to standard kongs after a while. I'm still posting with my right hand a bit, but working on planting my hands a bit more evenly. This is getting better...I think.
• Metcon:
  50 air squats
    10 precisions
    5 burpees
  50 pushups
    10 precisions
    5 burpees
  50 situps
    10 precisions
    5 burpees
  50 (jumping) pullups
    10 precisions
    5 burpees. Time: 15:15.

[TraceuseDS]

January 19, 2009:
Rest day.


January 20, 2009:
Morning:
Went to the gymnastics gym VERY early in the morning b/c our PK class, Zombiefit, was being featured on the local news. Lots of very brief, intense bursts of activity punctuated by extended periods of rest and relaxed movement.

• Warmup: Joint rotations, mostly.
• Vaults: Had to substitute a stack of (slippery) blocks for our normal one. Did mostly speed vaults and some of my odd kongs.
• Precisions: Back and forth across the low balance beams.
• More vaults: This time on a really short block. *REALLY* short. Argh. Managed a pretty cool vault I've done a few times before...forget what it's called. The kind where you spin around over the top...but NOT a turn vault. Hmm.
• Vault flow: Over the tall balance beams. Some were too high, so I had a few underbars mixed in there. Managed to smash my knee on a beam on one of the practice runs. It's bruised just above the kneecap and a bit swollen. (Iced after we finished with the entire thing.)
• QM: Across the tall balance beams, then across the floor next to the beam. Rinse, repeat.
• Metcon-ish: 5 burpees, 5 air squats, vault, roll, jog back and start over.

Noon: Pilates class. Because I'm apparently masochistic. Knee still hurts, but I think it's just bruised.

To be continued...

[TraceuseDS]

January 21, 2009:
REST!! Had to be up at 4:30 AM yesterday for the news thing, so I tried to make up for it by sleeping late today.


January 22, 2009:
Gym.

• Warmup: 2x(10 air squats, 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 [5+5] pullups [90# assist])
• Press:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 3x5, 55#
• Squat:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 1x5, 65#
  • 1x5, 95#
  • 3x5, 145# (This would've been the bodyweight goal I was shooting for, but I seem to have put on 5# somewhere along the line...still fitting into the same size pants, though, so I'll chalk it up as an acceptable weight gain. Hopefully I'll hit the new BW goal by this time next week.)
• Light metcon: Run 1/4 mile, walk 1/4 mile. Decided to work on running b/c I'm still lacking in that department.

[TraceuseDS]

January 23, 2010:
Rock climbing! Spent ~3 hours messing around with various routes and bouldering around the gym. Fantastic workout, and a great change of pace! Every time I do this I say I should go more often...and then don't show up again for a year and a half, lol. We'll see what happens.


January 24, 2010:
Rest...other than helping carry some stuff up to my parents' attic.

[TraceuseDS]

January 25, 2010:
Gymnastics gym!

• Warmup: Joint rotations, some dynamic stretching...
• Basic vaults (for me, "just get over the block any way you can"); vault + roll (not very smooth - more like vault, stop, roll, but I'm working on it); roll + vault (lots of fail; I can't get enough momentum after the roll to get over the block cleanly, even if I start pretty far back and have time for a couple steps).
• Obstacle course: Lazy vault to precision; balance for a few feet; precision to...um...toadstool? lol; crane onto a block; jump to the next block; get down. My lazies were a mess at the beginning of this, but Jefe pointed out that it's better to tap with my trailing foot (as opposed to my leading one, or sitting down on the block) if I must touch the block on the way over, which helped a lot. Also worked on some cranes and pseudo-cranes; it's easier to get my foot up on the block using the momentum from my legs AND push off with my arms a bit. Precisions were pretty nice, but I'm having a mental block jumping up onto things. Like the toadstool (seriously felt like I was playing Mario something...).
• Worked by myself on flow over the balance beams. It was tricky at first, but I finally managed to string 4 vaults together (there are 5 balance beams). My favorite combo went lazy-lazy-two hands-speed. It's still pretty ugly, but I'm working on it.

[TraceuseDS]

January 26, 2010:
Orchestra rehearsal: 2.5 hours. Nearly half our section was out sick, so I had to sit first stand. This was awesome, but considerably more stressful than usual - especially when our section leader had to take an emergency phone call in the lobby, temporarily making ME section leader! Yikes!!!


January 27, 2010:
Morning: Pilates. Our normal instructor was gone, and the substitute takes everything super slow, so class was waaaayyyy easy. For some reason my joints were popping a lot today, though - particularly my right hip, which is what this is supposed to be helping!

Evening:ZombieFit (aka gymnastics gym).

• Warmup: 10 pushups, 10 squats, 10 situps, 10...kinda half jumping pullup, half pullup from 90 degrees. Joint rotations...couple static stretches for ankles. QM: forwards, backwards, right + tuck jump, left + tuck jump.
• Underbars! Yay! I haven't done these in much too long. Took a false start or two, but I got back into the flow of these pretty quickly. It's kind of silly, because you shouldn't compare yourself with other people (particularly in parkour), but it felt really *really* nice to be working at the same level as the rest of the guys for once! Underbar was over a bar slightly above waist height (on me) and under a bar around shoulder height. We also did some combinations with a block in front of the bars, so basically you had to vault over the block, take the minimum number of steps possible, and complete the underbar. This felt good, but I need to remember to pull my chest close to the top bar when I'm passing between the two bars.
• Spent the rest of my time working on kongs with Jefe. After learning a new way to think about it, I actually got a pretty decent split-foot takeoff going on. We were practicing on the big block, and I kept doing this odd kong-to-safety thing, but I felt a lot more power in the takeoff. Huh. Who woulda thought? We eventually switched to the smaller block, at which point I was able to consistently complete vaults...still kind of odd (posting just a touch with my right arm), but they definitely resemble a true kong a lot more than before and my takeoff is much improved! All in all a good training session.
• Metcon: 21-15-9 for time. Pushups, situps, burpees. I started out with real pushups, but with the pushups and the burpees together I had to transition to knee pushups somewhere in the 15 round. My time: 7:51. Not bad!

[TraceuseDS]

January 28, 2010:
Rest day.


January 29-31, 2010:
Out of town for a retreat. Some very low-key jogging and a few individual PK skills practiced here and there, but nothing significant to report. Totally freaked out one of my friends when I slipped off a wall and sat down hard on the floor after a cat leap. "Oh my gosh!! Are you OKAY?!?" Haha

[TraceuseDS]

February 1, 2010:
Exercise fail. I'm having a lot of trouble lately staying consistent. My sleep schedule is off (see timestamp of this post), my diet is messed up, and my motivation is shot. I figure all these are probably related to one another. Not really sure what to do, other than try to press my internal Reset button.


February 2, 2010:
1.5 hours carrying boxes that weighed between 14.2 and 15 kg, as well as other assorted heavy objects.

Orchestra rehearsal: 2.5 hours. Bright spot of the day: My stand partner was out today, so I got to fill in for the fifth cello part in the cello choir at the beginning of Rossini's William Tell Overture. 'Twas beautiful.

[Hopefulpilot]

Oooo! William Tell Overture! That had to be totally awesome! 

Hang in there!

[TraceuseDS]

Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite pieces of all time, and the beginning just rocks my socks!

February 3, 2010:
Morning: Pilates. Regular teacher was back, and apparently she decided to make up for lost time. I actually felt like I was working in this class, which was good.

Discovered afterwards that they finally repaired the auto-belay system on the rock climbing wall at the gym! Climbed for a few minutes, but I was too tired to make a serious attempt. Also, the auto-belay they repaired and set up happens to be the one over the most difficult route - you know, the kind where the wall actually curves out above you - so it was pretty tricky. Didn't even make it halfway up. I'll be back!

Evening: Zombiefit.

• Warmup: Ran around the gym a few times and crawled through this awesome tunnel they have under one of the trampolines. 3x(10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 jumping jacks, and 10 air squats). Joint rotations.
• QM: Forwards, backwards, and each side. Soooo, last Monday I somehow managed to dislocate one of my toes (left foot, the toe equivalent to the ring finger). It was all screwed up til Wednesday, when I managed to pop it back into place. Seemed fine all week, but it got hurt again during the side QM here. Grr. Continued to flare up off and on for the rest of the night.
• Tuck jumps: 10x. Tried to work on soft landings - often ended up losing my balance.
• Underbars: Spent most of the night working on underbars in various configurations. Discovered that it's a lot more difficult to get the push off the ground on a soft mat than a solid one. After a few bails (in which I knocked components over) I had a massive mental block and couldn't do any more. I'd run up to the bar and stop short; just couldn't get through. It serves me right for bragging last week! It took a while, but I eventually did get back into the swing of things. What a lot of wasted time, though!
• Metcon: Half-"Tabata This." 20 seconds maximum effort followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 4 times for each exercise: Pushups (10, 12, 9, 8; started standard but ended up on knees), situps (12, 12, 11, 9, 9), jumping jacks (24, 26, 25, 25), and air squats (11, 10, 9, 10).

[TraceuseDS]

February 4, 2010:
Rest day.


February 5, 2010:
Finally got myself back into the gym.

• Warmup: 10 squats, 10 situps, 10 pushups, 10 assisted pullups (100# assist, broken to 6+4)
• Squat:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 1x5, 95#
  • 1x5, 160# Realized I put the 10# plates on here instead of the 5# ones by mistake! I was able to move it, but ended up with terrible ROM - like half squats. Moved the weight back down for the next sets.
  • 2x5, 150# THIS is a BW squat. 100% bodyweight squat, ftw!
• Overhead Press:
  • 1x5, 45#
  • 3x5, 55# Arched my back a little too much on the last couple sets. The weight went up, but I felt like I was pushing from lower in my body than I should've been.

Later that day: Umm...does DDR count as an exercise?


February 6, 2010:
Ripped up several rooms of carpet at my friend's house and got to use a crowbar to pry up a whole bunch of wood. Partner-carried 3,400# of hardwood flooring into the house. Waaaayyy more fun than a gym workout!

[Spencer B]

• 2x5, 150# THIS is a BW squat. 100% bodyweight squat, ftw!

That is win. Congrats! W00T W00T!

[TraceuseDS]

Yes! It is, it is! ::happy dance::


February 7, 2010:
More home improvement, this time cutting out chunks of drywall at my parents' house (trickiest part was trying to cut upwards with a keyhole saw above my head). Apparently this was home-improvement weekend and I didn't get the memo? It's a good weekend, though, when you get to use both a crowbar and a jigsaw in the same 48 hour period!

[TraceuseDS]

January 20, 2009:
Morning:
Went to the gymnastics gym VERY early in the morning b/c our PK class, Zombiefit, was being featured on the local news.

Realized I forgot the link for this.


February 8, 2010:
Z-fit (someone was filming a video blog for a class today...kinda made me self-conscious having a camera around):

• Warmup: None, really...missed it. Then failed to do my own.
• Dive rolls: Started off diving across a low (less than a foot high) piece of a foam block and gradually worked up to higher and higher stuff. Eventually progressed far enough that I could do a dive roll through this awesome foam...donut...thing without knocking it over. Was very proud of myself until Rich pointed out the fact that I've been whipping my head/body around during dive rolls to get momentum, rather than tucking my chin to my shoulder like I ought to. This SO wouldn't have worked on concrete! Gah! Guess that's one of the dangers of working on new things in a gym. Went back and worked on my form until I could do it the right way.
• Kong-ish stuff: Took too long a break since I last worked on this. Tried to recapture my split-foot takeoff. Was moderately successful, but it still needs more work.
• Flow: Over my four favorite balance beams. Still choppy, but getting at least a *little* more fluid.
• Metcon: 21-15-9 of burpees, situps, and pushups. Man, that set of 15 burpees was hard after all those pushups! Time: 6:18.